Jul 28th, 2012

Author: TomC

Mark Rippetoe recently wrote an article for T-Nation entitled Get Your Press Up. It is an amusing and profane piece encouraging trainees to focus on an oft-neglected lift. His audience is specifically young men who are focused on the bench press as an upper body strength building exercise, but the points made are relevant well beyond that demographic. Here’s an excerpt:

I made the error of training the bench press for 15 years without heavy pressing, and it got me two shoulder surgeries (the press keeps your anterior and posterior shoulder strength in balance, the bench doesn’t) and the realization one day that I couldn’t correctly press 35% of my bench. Which is bullshit.

The press is a difficult movement for many people, myself included. The muscles involved in pressing are smaller and more susceptible to fatigue than those used in the squat and deadlift. Progress often comes slowly in the lift and with smaller weight increments than we might want. Microplates (plates less than 2.5 pounds a piece) come in very handy when seeking to maintain incremental increases in weight. Despite these difficulties, a strong press is of great benefit to CrossFit and overall strength training. Enjoy the article and good luck setting new PRs on the press.

Also, best of luck to Joey, Leka, Steve D, Lance, and our fearless leader, Mike Minium as they compete in Hercules tomorrow. I happen to think Hercules might be the best town to host a strength-related competition I have ever heard of.